Loading ...Having made so much soup recently I figured it was about time I tried my hand at some bread to go with it. So when I stumbled across this bread for busy people post recommending this recipe for the almost-no-knead baguette I figured it was a sign!
Unfortunately it seems that my baking abilities do not extend to bread! I got to the “cover and allow the baguette to rise till it’s very puffy, about 1 ½ hours” stage; it has been covered for over two hours now and is no bigger than when I left it there. Should I put it in the oven? Is there something I can do to rescue it? As instructed I had started with only a ¼ of the recipe, so I still have quite a bit left to deal with! I would really appreciate any advice anyone has to offer!
Fortunately though we wont be going without, as I had also decided to try another recipe for amazingly easy Irish soda bread, which is thankfully, as the recipe suggests, amazingly easy, so even I couldn’t mess it up!
Maybe I should stick to fruity breads like apple-sauce bread, banana bread and gingerbread! Perhaps I should go and make one of those now to console myself! Or maybe I should just go check out the the tasty carnivals to see what everyone else is cooking up!
Sounds like your yeast was no good. Maybe your water was too hot or maybe the yeast was just old. Keep on trying
Irish soda bread is a big hit around here!
Blessings!
Gail
Comment by Gail@FaithfulnessFarm — October 20, 2009 @ 3:07 pm
I haven’t made bread in a long time. Your recipe looks great!
Thanks for joining in the fun at TATT this week!
Comment by Cole — October 20, 2009 @ 10:39 pm
I have a great baking book called “the Clueless Baker” – it’s from a series of books which started with “Clueless in the Kitchen” and it has some great no-rise bread recipes. I would highly recommend it (or you can borrow mine)!
The Irish soda bread looks yummy!
Comment by Emily — October 21, 2009 @ 7:39 am
p.s. I could see the picture before I got to the part about the soda bread and I thought that was your baguette. oops! I was like, there is something seriously wrong with that baguette!
Comment by Emily — October 21, 2009 @ 7:40 am
That’s a bummer – I’m sorry the baguette didn’t work out. Perhaps your house wasn’t warm enough? You could try a warmed oven – turn it on for about five minutes to heat up, then turn off, vent a little of the heat, put your dough in there to rise. Or if you have a gas oven, the pilot light will keep the dough warm without turning the oven on at all. Thanks for sharing in the Twister! ~Wardeh
Comment by Wardeh @ GNOWFGLINS — October 21, 2009 @ 10:33 am
Thanks all. I think that perhaps the temperature of the house may be a problem as we keep it quite cool. I had left the dough covered on the counter and this morning it had doubled in size, so I stuck it in the oven and it turned out OK. It isn’t as light and fluffy as I might like, but it is not bad.
I still have the rest of the dough so will try a loaf with the warmed oven. Thanks for the tip.
Comment by Heidi — October 21, 2009 @ 10:43 am
Hi Heidi
Yep a warmer environment – I always put cling film on the top of the bowl (several layers) and then wrap the whole thing in a couple of tea towels so its nice and dark. I then either just put it in the microwave and leave it. Or as some others have suggested – put the oven on low for about 5 minutes and then put it in there. I still leave the cling film and teatowel even in the oven> Seems to like the dark.
Comment by Karon — October 21, 2009 @ 2:41 pm
Thanks for the recipe and linking to TMTT.
Comment by Lisa@blessedwithgrace — October 24, 2009 @ 5:05 pm